Tribes and Wildlife of Northern Tanzania Light Mobile Safari An environmentally-friendly and affordable safari with driving and walking components
Day 1 Tarangire, Light Mobile Camp
Your programme begins with a pick-up from Arusha. Gane and Marshall can quote and organise flights to Tanzania, transfers to Arusha and a variety of Arusha hotels. Please contact us for further information.
Your driver/guide will collect you from your hotel early this morning to begin your private safari. All camping equipment and supplies will be packed in advance.
From Arusha, transfer to Tarangire National Park (approx. 2.5hrs). Tarangire is one of the lesser known of the Tanzanian parks, giving it a real air of undiscovered Africa. It is famous for its large herds of elephant, tree climbing lions and pythons, and massive baobabs. Although a small park, Tarangire is home to a dense wildlife population, second only to Ngorongoro. Birding is particularly good here; the swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, estimated to be the most breeding species in a single habitat anywhere in the world.
Your Financial Protection All monies paid by you for the air holiday package shown [or flights if appropriate] are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is ATOL 3145. For more information see our booking terms and conditions.
Before setting off from Arusha you will be able to buyany soft and alcoholic drinks from the local shop. Our vehicles include a good-sized electric cool-box.
Today will be your first night under canvas in Tanzania. You sleep in large Dome or A Frame tents with a comfy mattress on light weight camp beds. Beds are made up with sheets and blankets (or you can choose to have sleeping bags). Solar lighting and a hand torch are provided.
The facilities in the national park public camping sites will typically include very basic loos and washing areas and occasionally showers.
This is a participatory safari so you will be able to help put up the tents on arrival, and take them down on departure. Your driver/guide and assistant will prepare meals.
Day 2 Ngorongoro Crater Highlands, Light Mobile Camp
After an early breakfast you will depart Tarangire for the Crater Highlands and Ngorongoro Crater. The views as you approach the famous Crater are wonderful.
Late morning, descend into the Crater for a guided safari (maximum length permitted by the national park guidelines is six hours), with a picnic lunch at midday in the Crater.
Arguably the best self-contained safari destination in the world, the rich pasture and permanent water of the crater floor shelters a staggering population of animals. Indeed, the crater floor is one of the most densely crowded game areas in the world, home to about 30,000 animals. The open grassland makes it easy to police, so it is also a stronghold for endangered species like black rhino and cheetah.
In the late afternoon drive to your highland camp near the Crater rim for dinner and overnight.
Day 3 To the Serengeti, Light Mobile Camp
After breakfast depart for the vast plains of the Serengeti eco-system. The name ‘Serengeti’ is derived from the Maasai word 'Serengit', which means ‘endless plains’, or 'the place where the land runs forever'—a reference to the flat grasslands which are the park’s defining feature. It is these seemingly endless savannah plains which ensure that the park attracts such prodigious quantities of game. With any luck, you can hope to see wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, hyena, lion, leopard, cheetah and caracal.
Gane and Marshall Tel: +44 (0)1822-600-600 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.ganeandmarshall.com
After a long game drive through the Crater Highlands and into the Serengeti, you'll drive to your campsite in the game-rich Seronera region of the park for dinner and overnight.
Day 4 Serengeti National Park, Light Mobile Camp
Full day of game drives in the Serengeti. Overnight at light mobile camp in Seronera.
Day 5 Lake Manyara, Light Mobile Camp
Wake early and drive to Lake Manyara National Park. The drive will take most of the day with stops en-route for photos and a picnic lunch. Overnight at Lake Manyara light mobile campsite.
Lake Manyara stretches along the base of the 600- metre high Rift Valley escarpment. Its ground water forests, bush plains, baobab strewn cliffs, and hot springs offer incredible ecological variety in a small area, which is also rich in wildlife. Lake Manyara is famous for being home to a huge array of bird life, particularly water birds: pink flamingo by the thousands, as well as yellow-billed storks, herons, geese, grebes, ibises and kingfishers. Perhaps most famous of Lake Manyara's wild attractions, however, are its tree-climbing lions. Among the only of their kind in the world, they make the mahogany and acacia trees their home during the rainy season.
Lake Manyara NP is also home to the largest concentration of baboons anywhere in the world, a fact that makes for interesting game viewing, especially if you encounter a large family of the primates.
Gane and Marshall Tel: +44 (0)1822-600-600 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.ganeandmarshall.com
Day 6 Engaruka, Light Mobile Camp
Early morning game drive in Manyara National Park, before departing for Engaruka.
Today will see you really begin to depart from the beaten track, as you drive across the Rift Valley floor under the lee of the great escarpment. Your destination is Engaruka, a now-abandoned settlement which developed sophisticated irrigation techniques in the 15th-century. You will have a chance to visit the ruins, ideally in the late afternoon when it is a bit cooler, before heading to a nearby camp.
Day 7 Ol Doinyo Lengai & Lake Natron, Light Mobile Camp
The following three days will see you explore rarely- visited regions of the Great Rift Valley, or what is often referred to as the Maasai Lands. You can explore this area largely by 4x4, but to really get a feel for the African bush, you may prefer to travel on foot with an experienced walking guide. There is an additional charge for this service (see below). To get a good idea of what the walking itinerary involves, see our Into the Maasai Lands itinerary.
The landscape, as you head further north, is dominated not only by the Rift Escarpment but also by the twin cones of Ol Doinyo Lengai and Kerimasi. Today you will have the chance to marvel at some of the greatest scenery in Tanzania: vast plains of savannah grass, dotted with acacia trees and volcanic cones, where giraffe amble in the distance, giving the region a magical, pre-historic “feel”. At night you may with luck see from your campsite the hot sulphur of the sacred volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai as it courses down the slopes from fissures in the volcano’s tall slopes. These awe-inspiring volcanoes were formed by the weaknesses in the earth’s crust that also gave rise to the Great Rift Valley, whose escarpment you can see to the west.
Gane and Marshall Tel: +44 (0)1822-600-600 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.ganeandmarshall.com
The area is part of that East African region known as the cradle of humankind. It is peopled by the Maasai and you will see their villages and their herds as you travel through the region on foot or by 4x4.
Your light mobile camp will be set up at a site to suit the season, either near the Sunken Crater or in the foothills of Lengai.
Time allowing, in the late afternoon you can drive out for sundowners to a high point from where you might see the mysterious soda Lake Natron, a breeding location for flamingo.
Day 8 Gelai, Light Mobile Camp
Between Lake Natron and Longido there are two important Maasai settlements: Gelai and Kitumbeine. Here trading and weekly markets take place, while poorly equipped schools try to deal with the growing number of children. In these villages the Maasai culture meets with the modern world and it is not always an easy union.
Gane and Marshall Tel: +44 (0)1822-600-600 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.ganeandmarshall.com
About CPA: Gane and Marshall is closely involved with the charity Community Projects Africa (CPA), which works with several Maasai communities in the region of Gelai, helping to provide facilities for medical care and education. The work we do though CPA does try to take account of the risk of destroying a fine nomadic culture with settlements, schools and medical centres. Yet the Maasai clearly wish to meld the two and have education and medicine as well as preserving their traditional way of life. This where well planned and eco-friendly tourism can actually help. Tourism can encourage people of threatened cultures to preserve their lifestyle. Tourism also can inspire development projects. In October 2008 to January 2009 our clients helped build and fund two new school classrooms for Gelai village. In 2012 and 2013 new school buildings were put up at Laiboni. Gane and Marshall set up and continues to support the Longido Vocational Training Centre. All these projects contribute to the educational development of the peoples who live in the Maasai Lands.
Once again, today may be a mix of walking (setting off early to avoid the heat) and driving. The itinerary can be very easily adapted to include more or less walking depending on the strength of the group. You will camp near Ngarirat, a dry area close to Gelai Village.
Day 9 Longido, Light Mobile Camp
You will have some wonderful opportunities for walking during this last day. As you pass Kitumbeine Village the trail levels and straightens all the way through to Longido on the Nairobi Arusha highway. Thereafter the trail becomes sandy rather than rocky allowing for comfortable walking. You will cross the highway and set up camp in a beautiful place in the foothills of Mount Longido.
Gane and Marshall Tel: +44 (0)1822-600-600 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.ganeandmarshall.com
Day 10 Arusha and flight home or head to Zanzibar or the Mainland Coast
A leisurely drive to Arusha (90 mins) and time for lunch in town and last minute shopping before your mid-afternoon transfer to the airport for your evening flight to Nairobi with onward connections to the UK or Zanzibar/Dar es Salaam (if extending).
Price guide: The cost of this itinerary is £3822 per person (before international flights) for a group of two, including all transfers, accommodation, meals and experienced guides. For small groups and families of 4 or more, the cost is £2702. To upgrade to private (special) camps in Tarangire and Serengeti, add £380pp.
Please contact our office for a tailor-made itinerary and quote. We can help you plan the next stage of your holiday to East Africa.
Gane and Marshall Tel: +44 (0)1822-600-600 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.ganeandmarshall.com